


Chemistry

by secondalto



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Rare Pairing, Romance, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-03-03
Updated: 2010-03-03
Packaged: 2017-10-07 17:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondalto/pseuds/secondalto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willow takes Riley up on the offer to talk. </p>
            </blockquote>





	Chemistry

**Author's Note:**

> While rewatching Season 4, I noticed the odd chemistry Willow and Riley had during "The Initiative" and an idea was formed. This is my attempt to hone in on that chemistry. Dialog from the episode written by James A. Conter. I also mess around with the timing of events in this episode for my own purposes.

"I can't believe it. I choked," Riley said, watching as Buffy laughed and interacted with one of his frat brothers.

"You really, really did," Willow replied.

They were sitting side by side on the couch at the frat house, the party raging on around them.

"Well, you failed extremely well."

"That's a great comfort to me."

Willow patted his arm in comfort. Riley felt a spark of something and glanced over at Willow. She was a nice enough girl; pretty, friendly and intelligent. The first time they'd met they'd immediately clicked over psychology, by Riley hadn't let it get beyond friendly discussion because he was going to be the TA for her class. Fraternization was discouraged, especially by Professor Walsh.

Now he was rethinking that strategy. Why had he let Forrest and Graham push him into chasing after Buffy? He was his own man. He could decide for himself what kind of girl was right for him. Besides, he'd be comfortable talking with Willow earlier, when he'd gone to seek advice on how to approach Buffy. Maybe he was looking at the wrong roommate. As the song changed, Riley noticed Willow stiffen, removing her hand from his arm quickly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"This song…."

"Associations?"

"Big."

"Bad? A.J,!" he made a cutting motion and his friend changed the song.

"Thank you. I should go."

"There's no hurry. I mean if you want to talk," he offered.

He noticed that she seemed to hesitate a moment, war with herself before answering.

"Can we go somewhere else?"

"Sure," Riley answered, standing and offering her his hand.  
                        *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
 

There wasn't much choice for privacy so Willow suggested the Espresso Pump. Riley agreed, guiding her to the path out of campus. They kept the conversation to safe topics; the weather, the status of the basketball team, When they got to the Pump, it was super busy, but they managed to snag a table. Riley bought her mocha, with whipped cream. They sat in silence for a while before Riley spoke up.

"So, associations with the song?"

Willow fiddled with her cup. "I dated the lead guitarist. Bad break up, kinda recent."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, we…it was rocky the last couple of months. And it wasn't our first rough patch. He was my first," she admitted shyly.

Riley wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he returned the sympathetic pat on the arm. "First breakups are the hardest," he finally said. "Brenda Markham, sophomore year. I moped for two weeks."

Willow looked up. "Really? You? I don't believe it."

Riley laughed softly. "Yeah, me. I wasn't always this…."

"Tall? Handsome?"

"You flatter me. So why haven't you talked with Buffy about this? She is your best friend, right?"

He took a sip of his cappuccino, keeping an eye on everyone in the room without betraying to Willow what he was doing.

"We have, some. She says it takes time. All my friends say that."

"It does," Riley replied. "No easy fix I'm afraid. Unless you find someone else to ease the hurt, or share the suffering."

"I'm guessing you did," Willow smirked.

"Mary Ellen Waters, my third week of feeling sorry for myself."

"I don't think I'm ready for that yet," she said, hanging her head.

"Well, you can always come to me to talk," Riley offered. "Anytime."

"That's really nice of you, Riley, but you don't have to. I mean, you've got your friends, the whole being a TA thing with the grading of papers and all that, plus your own school work. I'm sure you have better things to do than listen to little ole me ramble on about my love life."

"Not at the moment," he said. He watched as she blushed a little, turning her attention back to her mocha. She was probably surprised that he'd made the offer at all. But there was just something about her that had prompted him to, and he was glad he had. They spent the rest of their time talking about classes and professors and generally having a really good time until Riley's beeper went off."Sorry, that's a reminder that I have to be somewhere," he said.

"It's okay, I have homework I should do."

"I'll walk you back, it's not safe at night for a young woman alone." He then helped her with her coat and held the door open. It was really sweet. They walked back to campus in comfortable silence, both on the lookout for danger. They stopped at the entrance to her building.

"This is me, thanks again," she said.

"Remember, call me if you want to talk again," he reminded her before turning away.

He was sure she was watching, but he breathed a small sigh of relief when he heard the door to her building swing open.  
                                    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Patrol had been fairly routine, a couple of vampires bagged and already on their way for processing. For who knows what reason, during a fight with another group of vamps, Graham decided to grill Riley.

"So you ditched the party kinda early, where'd you go?" he asked, hitting his opponent.

"I was helping a friend. You should be paying attention, soldier," Riley observed as the vamp got a shot in.

"Multitasking, sir."

The vampire went down with a punch, out cold.

"Uh huh," Riley replied, concentrating on his own vampire.

"What's going on with that Buffy girl?"

"Don't think she's my type."

"Didn't think you had a type, sir. Besides, she's hot," Forrest injected, tasering the vampire he was facing.

"Looks aren't everything."

"What? You want brains too?" Graham scoffed, moving to cuff the vamps using cable ties.

Riley dusting his opponent before turning to him. "Is there something wrong with intelligence in a woman?"

"No, I guess not. Doesn't matter anyway."

"That so?"

"Yeah, she left with someone else, older guy."

Riley thought about that for a moment, but it really didn't matter. There was movement coming from across the street. Sunnydale was getting busy lately.

"Head up, possible HST."

Everyone was instantly on alert, personal lives forgotten.  
                                    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Willow was still up when Buffy returned from patrol. Buffy smiled, happy to see her.

"Hey, you're here. You kinda went missing from the party."

She pulled out her weapons bag, putting away spare vials of holy water and a wicked looking dagger.

"Yeah, I, uh, I left…I left with Riley and I know that you like him, but he was really nice and we talked about what happened with Oz and please don't be mad at me."

Willow squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for Buffy's angry outburst.

"I'm not mad, Will."

"You're not?" she said, opening her eyes.

Buffy sat down next to Willow. "No, I'm not. I mean, yes, Riley is cute in a very tall Nordic kinda way, but I realized something tonight. Or more like I got a clue."

Willow's eyes grew and she turned to Buffy in excitement. "Oh, tell me, tell me, vicarious smoochies."

Buffy laughed. "No smoochies, yet anyway. Giles came by the party and well…."

"Not so old and gross?"

Buffy blushed and that was all the answer Willow needed.

"Go, Buffy. You know, I used to have a crush on Giles."

"Really? And how's that workin' out for you?"

"Totally over it," Willow answered, waving her hands in defense.

"Relax, Will. Giles is one studly guy. I don't mind that other women will look at him, as long as they don't touch. So, Riley, huh?"

It was Willow's turn to blush. "It was just coffee and talking."

"Go for it, Will. Maybe Riley is just the thing you need." Buffy stood, looking for her bag of toiletries. Willow sighed and got up, lifting up a discarded shirt from the desk, revealing the bag.

"Maybe. Any baddies out tonight?" she asked, looking for her own toothbrush.

"Just Spike, but I think we've got a handle on it."

"Good, I guess we should think about going to bed, big psych quiz in the morning."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

They exited the room, heading for the community bathroom.  
                                    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Professor Walsh wasn't in class, so it was Riley who was administering the quiz. He kept looking at Willow, thinking about their conversation. She wasn't what his team would call hot, but like he'd told them, looks weren't everything. She just had a way about her. Plus she was smart; Riley didn't want to date someone who couldn't talk about anything deeper than the latest hot band. So he wasn't surprised when she was the first one finished with the quiz.

She came down the rows of seats, books in one hand, paper in the other. She smiled shyly at him as she handed it to him. Their fingers brushed and Riley could have sworn he felt tingles. Willow drew back, leaving the room and he looked down at the paper to see a small post-it note attached. He sat at the table in front and surreptitiously peeled the note off, reading it.

_Espresso Pump, four o'clock. Can we talk?_

Riley folded the note in half and stuck it in his pocket. He glanced up to keep an eye on the rest of the class. He thought Buffy might have winked at him, but he shook it off. He had been planning to grade the quizzes this afternoon, but if he worked through lunch he could meet Willow.  
                                    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The pump was bustling, but Willow had managed to snag a table. She'd ordered a hot chocolate for herself and a cappuccino for Riley, exactly what he'd had the last time. She was hoping that she hadn't gone too far, if he showed up at all.

She was just Willow Rosenberg from Sunnydale, California. Why would a gorgeous guy like Riley Finn be interested in a girl like her? Yes, they'd had a good conversation, but that didn't mean they were going to have a relationship. She was babbling to herself. Willow shook her head and took a sip of her drink, forcing herself not to look at the door as she heard it open.

"Hey, is this for me?"

Willow turned to see Riley standing there. "Yes, I hope you don't mind."

"No," he said, sliding onto the stool next to her. "I, uh, got your note."

"Sorry about that, wasn't sure how else to ask you short of smoke signals."

Riley laughed. "So, you wanted to talk."

"I wanted to thank you again for last night. It was…nice."

"I'm glad I could help you out, but why do I get the feeling that you asked me here for a different reason?"

"Because maybe I did. I kinda thought that…maybe…there was…,' Willow lost her courage. "Never mind, I should go."

She grabbed her purse and started to get off her stool. Riley reached out to stop her.

"Wait, Willow. I think there is and I think I'd like to find out."

"But, Buffy…."

"Was me getting pushed around by my friends. They put the idea of her in my head, I thought there might be something to it, but I was wrong. Anyway, I heard she left the party with someone else."

Willow smiled. "Yeah, they've had a lot of tension for years and she just realized he's the one for her."

"Good for her. Can I buy you another drink?"

"No, I'm good. So, if we're going to do this, whatever 'this' is, shouldn't we wait until I'm not in psych class anymore?"

"Well, other than the quiz today, I won't have any influence over your grade, and there are only a few more weeks left," Riley pointed out.

"So, we can…date then?"

"Discretely at first, but I don't see why not."

Riley was really going to have to play it cool if he wasn't going to get caught or he'd hear about if from Walsh and that wouldn't be pretty. But Willow smiled and leaned over, kissing him on the cheek. Then she blushed and brought her hand up to her mouth.

"I don't know why I just did that. I'm sorry, I shouldn't, I'm babbling again."

"You're kinda cure when you babble," Riley said. "And it's okay, we can go as slow or as fast as you'd like."

Willow was screwing up to lean over and kiss him for real when his beeper went off. Riley pulled it out and glanced at the number. He frowned, but put the beeper away and stood.

"Sorry, again, problem at the frat house, I gotta go."

"Can I call you?"

"Sure, let me give you the number to my room, I don't have a roommate so you can leave a message on the machine if I'm not there."

He scribbled it down on a napkin and started to walk away, but stopped, turned back and pressed a quick kiss to Willow's lips before really leaving. Willow pressed her fingers to her lips as she watched him walk away.


End file.
